


Q is for Quest

by Ultra



Series: Lost in Space [6]
Category: Firefly
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fairy Tale Elements, POV River Tam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-03
Updated: 2011-05-03
Packaged: 2020-02-26 18:40:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18722728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: River only hoped Jayne did not give up on his noble quest too soon.





	Q is for Quest

**Author's Note:**

> originally written for heathskack on LiveJournal as part of a prompt meme.

It should be as the fairytales she heard so many times when she was a child.

The princess locked up in the tower by someone or something evil, pining for freedom and love and happily ever after.

A prince should come on a quest to save her, on a fiery steed with a sword in his hand, to beat back any thorns or dragons or ogre that dared block his path.

River had been raised a princess or close enough. A charmed life with riches and gifts and a hundred wonderful things she would never need.

Now she was locked in her own special hell of a tower, not of an evil step mother’s creation but made by doctors in her own mind.

The darkness of her own thoughts and those not her own hemmed her in. The cracks only let in the madness, no peaceful view of freedom.

River believed she must save herself from the monsters, that no prince (save for her dear guh-guh who was hardly suitable) would risk life and limb to brave the castle walls.

No man could be strong enough or stupid enough to fight back the dangers in his path, just for a glimpse of the princess held within the locked and bolted tower of her own dark mind.

If anyone were to take on such a quest, perhaps she ought to have known it would be him. Jayne Cobb was always a man to rise to a challenge, and though an unlikely prince, he was royalty of pain and broken spirit, as she was.

He peeked in through the window, a tiny gap through the dark dominating walls, and dared to urge on the light he saw shining through.

This did not mean the quest was over, for in truth it had only just begun.

Before long, the monster would rise again, bloodshed and tears to all who spared a glance, but the prince would persevere, and one day the princess would be free enough for him to love... or so they told themselves.

River only hoped Jayne did not give up on his noble quest too soon.

Unbeknownst to her brave knight, if he turned away from her now, the princess might begin to fade away, and then disappear forever.


End file.
